A full meeting of the National Planning Commission (NPC) chaired by Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has endorsed a three-year plan that will guide all development activities in the country till the end of fiscal 2018-19.

The country’s 14th periodic plan was passed on Sunday without any changes being made to the approach paper prepared by an NPC team headed by Yubaraj Khatiwada last year. A new NPC team led by Min Bahadur Shrestha had initially said it would revise the targets and programmes, but later left them alone after concluding that they were attainable.

This is the fourth consecutive three-year plan since the fiscal year 2007-08. Nepal has implemented eight five-year plans and five three-year plans since the process of planned economic development began in 1956.

Although three-year plans provide a basis for the government to frame the annual budget and guide development work in the country, they are short-term in nature and thus an ad hoc scheme.

“It’s unfortunate that Nepal’s policymakers and policymaking institutions have been forced to work with a series of ad hoc plans,” said NPC member Swarnim Wagle. “It’s now time to introduce a five- to seven-year investment plan so that the country can meet its long-term development goals.”

The latest three-year plan envisages achieving an economic growth rate of 6.5 percent in the current fiscal year, 7.2 percent in 2017-18 and 7.9 percent in 2018-19. 

This means that the average growth rate from fiscal 2016-17 to fiscal 2018-19 will reach 7.2 percent per annum if the government is able to achieve its target.

These growth rates will increase the per capita income of Nepalis to Rs116,500 by 2018-19 from Rs79,370 in 2015-16, says the plan.In order to achieve these targets, an investment of Rs2,425 billion at constant prices will be required over the three-year period. The plan expects 39.4 percent of this capital to come from the government, 54.7 percent from the private sector and 5.9 percent from cooperatives.

A big chunk of this money will be used to increase domestic production by transforming the agricultural sector and expanding tourism, industry and small and medium enterprises. 

The plan also aims to spend a considerable amount on developing infrastructure related to energy, road, air travel and information and communications besides strengthening the country’s social security and social protection systems.

Other objectives include introducing reforms in the economic and social sectors, ensuring sound and accountable public finance, delivering quality public services in a transparent manner and promoting good governance by protecting and promoting human rights. Moreover, focus has been laid on cross-cutting issues such as gender equality, inclusive society, environmental protection and capacity development of different institutions.